The Earth Online

2 The man destoryed by future

Thaleos took ahold of James’ arm and brought him to an alleyway nearby. James just allowed himself to be dragged — days of no sleep has drained the younger man the energy to pull away from Thaelos’ strong grip.

“How was that possible?” Thaleos asked as he clutched unto the younger man’s collar. James flinched at the impact, but still had the same dead look in his eyes.

Thaleos was just drowning in the fear and confusion, he could still hear the ringing in his ears. As he took a moment to blink, he saw the man’s head rolling across the street.

When he opened his eyes, James’ eyes bore straight into his soul.

“I told you, everything’s in the journal.” He rasped. Right at that moment, the blond man looked like he was one step away from death.

“What journal are you talking about, James? How is that connected to the accident?” The older man responded, stressing out every single word.

James slowly looked down on his feet and whispered in a tiny voice,

“I-I saw it in my d-dreams, Dr. Fincher.”

Thaleos’ hand that was tightly clutching on James’ collar suddenly fell down, as he remembered James stressing out about the very same accident in their therapy session two weeks ago. He felt like the world stopped for a split second.

“T-that can’t be possible.” He replied dumbfounded, “That can’t be right.” Thaleos kept denying it as images of flying lion-like beasts and black demons flashed before his eyes.

When James saw that a man as stable and strong Thaleos Fincher was falling apart, suddenly, everything felt more real.

“I-it’s gonna happen, Dr. Fincher. We’re all going to f*****g die because of these d-dreams. The Apocalypse is coming…” Triggering more anxious thoughts, James continued to whisper in utter desperation,

“Demons and gods are going to t-tear us apart. Two, no, three worlds of constant suffering. W-we’re going to —”

“Stop it, James! We’re not, it’s all just a coincidence. Y-your dreams aren’t real.” Thaleos knew they were both spiraling down, so he needed to stabilize both of their mentalities.

Just then, loud blaring sirens pierced the silence as an ambulance arrived on the scene. Two paramedics came out and were shouting all the details to each other.

And before they could get to the patient, James suddenly spoke,

“The victim is Robert Whitman,” Thaleos felt the hairs on his neck rise.

“The victim is Robert Whitman,” said by the emergency medical technician a second later.

“The victim was decapitated due to the strong impact of the black vehicle,” James slowly said while staring at Thaleos.

“The victim was decapitated due to the strong impact of the black vehicle,”

“Estimated time of death is...” James said while slowly waiting for the EMT to speak up.

“Estimated time of death is…”

“1:45 PM.”

“1:45 PM.” The EMT uttered with a hint of detachment in his voice, similar to James’ tone.

Thaleos’ eyes widened in shock.

“I told you, Dr. Fincher. It’s all in the journal. I saw it in my dreams.” James said as he started slowly losing it again,

“I can’t take this anymore. I-I don’t want to see people dying—” The blonde man gripped his head and started pulling at his hair,

“M-maybe I need to die so that other people d-don’t have to.” Thaleos didn’t know what to do, he was currently feeling numb from the whole situation.

Fortunately, his body reacted before he did. All those years of trigger-deescalating training pushed him to hold unto James’ arms to stop him from hurting himself.

“It’s going to be okay, James.” He said as he stared right into James’ eyes.

“No, no, we’re all going to die.” The younger man rasped out as tears started streaming down his face.

“It’s alright, James. We know what’s going to happen, we can stop this.” Thaleos firmly replied, with every inch of the mental strength they needed.

James didn’t answer and just looked around their surroundings as if eager to jump out of his thoughts.

Thaleos knew this look and tried to convince the younger man further,

“James, I promise you, we’re going to figure this out. Give me the journal and I’ll plan it out.” James stared at Thaleos with a bit of hope reflecting in his eyes,

“This isn’t gonna be like what happened with your Grandmother. We can prevent this.” That was the line that pushed James out of his panicking stupor.

“Y-yeah, p-prevent this, yeah.” He murmured as he profusely nodded his head. He gradually looked up at him with a certain light in his eyes and said,

“You really promise, Dr. Fincher?” Thaleos felt a sliver of relief going through him as James was finally breaking his trigger cycle.

“Definitely, James.” The older man promised. James gave a somber nod and they proceeded to walk out of the alleyway.

The streets were still filled with people, but the other side of the road had already been cleared of the accident.

As they took each step slowly, Thaleos was feeling more confident with his promise earlier.

After going through another street, he noticed that James stopped a couple of feet behind him. He felt that foreboding feeling coming back, basically stabbing his gut instinct.

When he turned around, he saw the young man giving him a serene look. James mouthed,

“Thank you, Dr. Fincher. Please keep your promise.”

Suddenly, a black car slammed right into James, causing the younger man’s body to glide across the street.

Blood splattered everywhere, and James’ body was filled with bruises and gashes.

Everything happened so quickly and slowly at the same time, that Thaleos didn’t know what to feel. He staggered as he tried going to where James’s body was, but his feet remained planted on the ground.

He felt a certain type of deadness and grief.

He wasn’t close to James, but in the few seconds they agreed to figure out his nightmares, he felt like they were the closest of friends.

As he stared up the sky, faintly, he could hear metals clashing and thunders rolling.

~ ~ ~

He doesn’t particularly remember how he got back to his apartment nor how he even had the will to take a shower.

Before he knew it, the night passed, and it was already the next day. He slept like a log, and still felt kind of numb from all the things that happened yesterday.

He remembered being asked by the police about what happened, and then the paramedics explaining James’ injuries and cause of death to him.

It was all just a mishmash of thoughts, grief, and fatigue in his mind. He didn’t know what to do.

Hours passed, and when the sun was at its highest, his phone suddenly started ringing.

Luckily, it was just within arm’s reach, and Thaleos has built up the energy to at least move to that extent.

“Yes?” He muttered; fatigue evident in his tone.

“Is this Dr. Thaleos Fincher?” An older woman’s crisp voice responded from the other side of the line.

“Yes, I’m Thaleos Fincher. How may I help you?” Thaleos responded with as much formality as he could muster.

“Ah, yes. This is James Hubert’s mother, Melinda. I’d like to invite you to his funeral, he wanted me to give you something.” The older woman said in an orderly fashion — almost as if presenting a business deal.

“Alright, I suppose I coul—"

Before he could even fully respond, the older woman cut him off,

“Magnificent. See you in Pete’s Pier in St. Andrew’s Town tomorrow at 9:00 AM, sharp. Feel free to write down your condolences, but only if you want to read them out loud at the service.”

Thaleos felt like he was hearing an AI assistant reading out an email. James’ mother seemed like she could care less about what happened to her son, and just wanted to get it over with.

This made the heavy feeling in Thaelos’ heart even heavier. If this was what having a family meant, then he preferred not to have one at all.

~ ~ ~

Pete’s Pier, St. Andrew’s Tone 8:56 AM

“You must be Dr. Fincher, I’m Melinda Hubert. James always insisted on meeting you even if we had Dr. Ryan here. Anyways, nice to meet you.” The older woman had a strong and confident grip.

She spoke in a fast and clear manner as if wanting to avoid “unnecessary” pleasantries.

Thaleos didn’t feel like speaking, so he just responded with a bleak smile and a quick nod — to which Melinda responded with a nod of her own.

“We are all gathered here today to say farewell to James Maddocks Hubert and to commit him into the hands of God,”

Thaleos felt like the world was mocking him. James spoke of gods and beast-like creatures killing people, and now, here comes a priest, handing James’ soul to a god.

He succumbed to the grief and guilt, as he kept rethinking how he could’ve done things better.

After a few hours, James' body was rolled down into the dug-up hole, and family members tossed red and white roses down his grave.

As everyone walked away from the vicinity, only Thaleos and Melinda were left.

“I wasn’t a good mother, you know.”

She muttered with a raspy voice.

Thaleos responded with just silence, but a non-hostile one.

“I did try to save him from my husband’s mother a few times, but I couldn’t. Not with the social standing I had before.” She continued while wiping away one lone tear streaming down her face.

“We have so many things to regret, but we can only honor him, and show the care we couldn’t give him to others instead.”

When Thaleos looked at Melinda, gone was the strong woman from earlier, and what left was a broken mother crying from her son’s death and from years of piled-up regrets.

Thaleos judged too hastily earlier, he’d forgotten how some people grieved differently, more privately.

“He wanted you to have this, Dr. Fincher.” The older woman brought out a small leather journal from her handbag.

“He said that only you knew about this, and also something about a promise.” After mulling over it a couple of seconds, Thaleos knew that James predicted his promise.

He took the leather notebook from her and gave a grateful look.

Once the older woman responded with a somber nod, she gave one last look at her son’s tomb and walked away.

Thaleos opened the notebook and his eyes widened in bewilderment,

Nightmare # 148

July 02

3:01 AM

July 18. Well, this is it.

This is the day I die — a death that at least I chose.

Near a bank, huh? How ironic, I dreamt of being a banker once.

Boring, but stable.

My nightmares are a jumbled mess.

But I know that in 42 days, The Apocalypse is coming.